Understanding institutionally supported free college programs

The relationship between the mission of community colleges and the increasing teacher shortage has become more transparent as many community colleges have implemented teacher education programs to address community needs, the shortage of qualified teachers, and the lack of diversity among teachers. As the community college's teacher education role has increased, many community colleges have responded by adding associate of arts degrees and certificate programs specific to teacher education to tackle the shortage of teachers and the lack of diversity among teachers in the nation's classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one community college's pre-service teacher education program in transferring minority students to a university teacher education program and the likelihood of the students graduating with both bachelor's degrees and teacher certification. This longitudinal ex post facto causal-comparative mixed methods case study involved tracking a cohort of minority students over a 6-year period. Data were gathered from existing teacher education program records for native and transfer students at one community college and two four-year institutions. Unstructured interviews were conducted with administrators over the community college's program. For data analysis, ?2 and Phi Coefficients were conducted to compare the minority students' university transfer and graduation rates to native university students' transfer and graduation rates. Results of the study demonstrated that the minority students were graduating at an observably higher rate than both the native to university students and their respective ethnic peers who began college at two-year colleges at the national level. This study's findings might help community college teacher education programs to increase enrollments of minority students and to address the needs of surrounding communities. The findings contributed to the relatively scarce literature regarding minority teacher preparation in community colleges. The study's findings might also be useful to community colleges looking toward or already implementing similar pre-service teacher education programs. Overall, the results indicated that pre-service teacher education programs at the community college level can be effective at producing transfer students who successfully graduate from four-year teacher education programs.

Recently Published Dissertations on Community and Junior Colleges

Online education is the fastest growing form of course delivery of higher education in the United States. It has revolutionized how students and instructors interact in the educational process. Yet students in online courses continue to experience higher attrition rates than their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classes despite the advantages offered by the technology. This study examined the impact that institutional policies and practices at community colleges in the state of Texas have had on student persistence in online courses. It also examined how institutions collect and use data in addressing students' attrition. The findings were used to identify the most effective institutional practices to share with community college systems in Texas in an effort to improve student persistence in online courses across the state. The population for the study consisted of the 50 public two-year community college and the technical college systems in the state of Texas. The study used a mixed method. A theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence was drawn from the literature review. This model's five categories were then used to construct a survey to collect data on institutional practices and measure the effectiveness in addressing student persistence. Four college systems were identified using the survey data that best met the five categories. Interviews were then conducted at these four college systems to produce case studies of these institutions' practices and experiences with online persistence. The results highlighted the roles that institutions play in promoting student persistence in online programs. They revealed differences in the ways institutions define and track student success in online programs and the difficulty these differences pose in comparatively evaluating various institutions' programs. Results lent support to the theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence that was developed for this study, and results yielded a proposed list of promising practices to enhance student persistence in online programs in public two-year community and technical colleges.

Development of an endoscopy technician training certificate program in a community college

This study provides descriptive information and preliminary first-year outcome data on the only overseas military gambling treatment option currently available. Implemented in January 2003 within the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program, U.S. Naval Hospital, Okinawa, Japan, gambling treatment was developed as a specific track within the overall substance abuse program. The present study explores the various considerations and requirements for setting up such a program, as well as a description of individuals seeking gambling treatment and preliminary outcome data. Participants consisted of all gambling referrals (N = 35, 26 males; mean age, 33.2 years; SD = 8.93) obtained over the first year that gambling services were offered. A significant degree of depression, suicidality, and substance abuse problems were observed in the sample. Results revealed that the gambling program was easily implemented within an established substance abuse program. The program was effective in preventing suicides in both military members and eligible beneficiaries and was effective in facilitating the retention of military members with gambling problems.

Reviewed by: International Reform Efforts and Challenges in Community Colleges. New Directions in Community Colleges, No. 138 Patricia Somers, Associate Professor Edward J. Valeau and Rosalind Latiner Raby (Eds.). International Reform Efforts and Challenges in Community Colleges. New Directions in Community Colleges, No. 138. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 112 pp. Paper: $29.00. ISBN: 978-0-470-17688-7. This monograph provides a basic overview of the issues, challenges, and models involved in internationalizing community college education. The editors wrote this book to fill the post-September 11 void about information on international education reform for community colleges. However, 9/11 was a double turning point: Americans understood the need to be more globally connected yet monies were diverted to national safety and security programs rather than educational activities. Eleven chapters form the monograph, with three common threads: (a) the role of new community college leaders in providing leadership for international programs, (b) how some community colleges have embraced globalization, and (c) how international education can become a catalyst for educational revitalization in community colleges (pp. 2–3). The book is aimed at relatively novice practitioners. The first three chapters have a good, but at times redundant, general overview of internationalization in community colleges. Two interesting chapters deal with the globalization of workforce development and technical/occupational programs. Six chapters review specific details of how to internationalize. Two of these chapters discuss consortial efforts. Consortia provide key support for international programs, particularly study-abroad efforts, which need a critical mass of students to be financially viable. Other chapters present examples of on- and off-campus programs and profile international faculty in community colleges. The most useful part of the monograph is two case studies. The first is a cautionary tale about how international education programs can become politicized, especially in a localized setting such as a community college. This case included charges of "pork barrel" trips by administrators for recruiting students and administrators who are junketing on "inspection visits" to colleges abroad. The final chapter is a case study of the successful Asia-Pacific Emphasis at Kapi'olani Community College in Hawai'i. While this volume seeks to help practitioners, it also contains useful research. For example, a study of 700 community college students found that they acknowledged financial barriers to study abroad, yet family and job considerations were even more important in their decision not to study abroad. Further, one of the consortia did a pre- and post-study of intercultural sensitivity, with mixed results depending on the program location. The monograph could be very helpful to community colleges just beginning an international effort. There are some omissions, however. A more detailed description of visa issues for international students and faculty would provide a realistic understanding of the effort involved in bringing international scholars to campus. Additional case studies would be useful. One author mentions that a community college has successfully used local immigrant communities to help develop its international program; a description of this program would be interesting. Further, a case study of a successful program at a "border" college (U.S/Mexico or U.S./Canada) would provide another model for globalizing the community college. On the whole, Valeau, Raby, and associates provide good basic information on internalizing the community college. The addition of a few more case studies would make the volume outstanding. [End Page 521] Patricia Somers, Associate Professor Higher Education and Women's/Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin, and Fulbright New Century Scholar Copyright © 2008 Association for the Study of Higher Education

The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s Framing the Future Task Force and the League for Innovation in the Community College (the League) cosponsored the Community Colleges and Public Health report. The report recommends that community colleges consider offering public health associate degrees and academic certificate programs including two prototype curricular models developed with support from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These include Public Health: Generalist & Specializations and Health Navigator. Each model includes 30 semester hours of coursework in public health core, required courses, experiential learning, and electives along with content outlines for public health core and specialty coursework. The report has been approved by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s Board and widely disseminated by the League. The League is currently implementing a planning and recognition process to encourage community colleges to plan associate degree and academic certificate programs consistent with the report including both prototype curricular frameworks. The Public Health: Generalist & Specializations is designed for transfer to bachelor’s degree programs in general public health, health education, health administration, and environmental health. The Health Navigator programs are designed for employment as community health workers, health care/patient navigators, and/or health insurance navigators. The rapidly expanding job market for these fields is discussed as well as the recommendation that these associate degrees be planned to enable transfer to bachelor’s degree programs in health education. Implications for the future of the health education profession are also addressed.

This paper describes the prevalence and characteristics of employee wellness programs in public community colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). A random sample of 250 public community colleges accredited by SACS was mailed a 46-item employee-wellness program survey. The survey solicited program information regarding funding, activities offered, program administration, participation rates, and incentives. The results indicated that the majority of the employee wellness program administrative bodies were either the health and physical education departments or wellness committees. The main coordinators of the wellness programs were either part-time directors within the institutions, wellness committees, or full-time directors within the institutions. Of the institutions surveyed, 27 out of 64 (42.2%) offered employee wellness programs. The findings indicate that the prevalence of employee wellness programs in public community colleges accredited by SACS is below previous research findings in community colleges and universities and do not meet the national health goals of employee health promotion prevalence set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Workers are remaining in the labor force at older ages; and, despite their desire to work, those without jobs face unprecedented durations of unemployment. Many of the unemployed lack current skills for jobs in demand and need to either upgrade their skills or be trained for a new occupation to become re-employed. An aging workforce combined with concerns about the long-term viability of social welfare programs has increased the importance of identifying strategies to encourage working at older ages. In recent years there has been increased focus on training that results in a credential; much of this training takes place at community colleges. The present study examined community college involvement in educational programs for older workers. This involved interviews and site visits at 14 community colleges to gain an understanding of the role community colleges play in linking older students to credential or certificate programs. Effective strategies for community college involvement in workforce training were identified and include outreach programs for older students, providing advice for specific programs of study, support during the program to ensure completion, job placement services, and continuing education for skill upgrading.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the educational experiences of Hispanic immigrant-English Language Learners (ELLs) who are graduates of the International High Schools and attended and graduated from a community college. The study focuses on the International High School experiences that seem to foster community college readiness. Moreover, the study focuses on supports and challenges experienced by these individuals, the implications of their second language abilities during their time at their community college, and the reason(s) many Hispanic immigrant-ELLs stop at the Associate’s degree and do not continue through to the bachelor’s degree. Twelve International High School graduates participated in the study. Qualitative methods were employed and data obtained through semi-structured interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The results showed that participants had a generally good experience at their International High School, and that they found helpful and supportive individuals such as teachers and classmates that helped them get through their high school education. In addition, International High Schools prepared participants for community college through academic and language learning related activities. Many participants communicated that the International High Schools provided them with a general preparation for college, including the opportunity to take college courses and participate in internships. Participants also communicated that while in community college, they received support and encouragement from academic programs as well as from faculty/professors. However, the most commonly identified challenge experienced by participants were negative interactions with professors and staff at their community college. Furthermore, the majority of International High School graduates communicated that their second language abilities were helpful/beneficial during their community college years because it helped them academically, and it also helped increase their social interactions with other Spanish-speaking students. Participants also shared their thoughts regarding the reason(s) many Hispanic immigrant-ELLs may stop at the Associate’s degree and do not continue through to a baccalaureate degree. The majority of participants felt that the main reasons many Hispanic immigrant-ELLs do not continue through to a baccalaureate degree is because of financial reasons, and because they have familial obligations that impede them from continuing their education further. In providing advice for other immigrant students whose native language is not English to help them get through community college, almost all of the participants provided general encouragement, as well as advice to make use of resources in their community college - including the importance of asking for help.

Grubb, W. N., & Gabriner, R. (2013). Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge. 244 pp. $150.00 (hardback). ISBN 978-0-415-63474-8 $46.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-415-63475-5 $46.95 (eBook). ISBN 978-0-203-09429-7.Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms by W. Norton Grubb with Robert Gabriner (2013) is a comprehensive, current, and creative examination of challenges students and educators face in bridging gap in skills common among entering college students. The authors' primary intent is to shed light on multitude of causes and effects of system most often referred to as developmental or remedial education in community colleges. While research reported in this book is specific to California system, both challenges and potential solutions can be generalized easily to community colleges in other parts of country.The authors are both education researchers from California universities. W. Norton Grubb is an Emeritus Professor and David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education at Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley. He has researched and written extensively on schooling and economics, secondary and higher education systems, and movement between systems. Robert Gabriner is Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of Educational Leadership Doctoral Program for Schools and Community Colleges at San Francisco State University. He has researched and written on success and systems leadership in higher education.The authors present a straightforward interpretation of problem of basic skills education referencing what they call the triangle of instruction. In this model, content/curriculum, student, and instructor anchor comers of a triangle mediated along sides by instructors' knowledge of content, knowledge of student, and their context inside framework of institution. Validating this model in practice allows authors to draw a set of related conclusions and recommendations for improving future education experiences for students struggling with college readiness.Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges utilizes active research at 20 California colleges, including observations in 169 classes and interviews with 323 educators. This research explores variety of needs of developmental students, quality of instruction, availability and quality of services like tutoring and counseling, alignment of course sequence, and instructional characteristics of institutions. Throughout, the triangle of instruction is applied as a framework for organizing findings and exploring contexts.The initial portion of book describes problem of basic skills education as authors see it from a classroom perspective. These issues include dominance of remedial pedagogy, innovations in Basic Skills Instruction, possibilities and limits of services, and a case study exploring problem of basic skills education in practice. The case study describes efforts one California community college undertook to address needs for help with basic skills. The school chose to implement changes to services branch of system by creating student success on each of their three campuses. These centers became focal point for several services designed to address most common needs. Services included peer tutoring (drop in and scheduled), ongoing and frequent faculty-led skill building workshops, structured learning groups on specific skill development, and directed learning activities led by peer tutors, supervised by faculty, and customized to fill specific gaps in skills needed for course progression. …

After the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society endorsed the recently completed Information Technology Curricula 2017 Curriculum Guidelines (IT2017) for Baccalaureate Degree Programs in Information Technology (IT) [1], the ACM Committee for Computing Education in Community Colleges (CCECC) at the direction of the ACM Education Board joined with the chair of the IT2017 task group to create corresponding guidance for two-year colleges offering IT transfer programs. In some countries, students can complete the first two years of a Bachelor's degree at a two-year school (which may be known as a community college, technical college, or junior college), and then transfer to a university to complete the remaining two years of their course of study [3]. The CCECC formed the IT Transfer Task Force (ITTTF), consisting of educators from both two-year colleges and four-year universities, to provide guidance for IT programs in such two-year schools. The guidance includes the competencies students should achieve during the first two years of an IT Bachelor's degree. The ITTTF is currently seeking public feedback from educators and IT industry representatives on an initial set of competencies to guide how the ITTTF should proceed to build IT Transfer Curriculum Guidelines. This poster will outline the initial selection of competencies to solicit feedback and input on the guidelines, including best practices for communication between two year IT Transfer programs and their four year university partners.

ABSTRACTIn the Urban Teacher Fellows (UTF) program, Student Support Specialists are responsible for recruiting, advising, and supporting students on the teacher pathway, beginning at the community college and continuing through the four-year university degree and credential programs. This is a program designed specifically to address serious concerns about the success of community college students in transferring to universities and completing teaching credential programs. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (2013) reports that only 25.4% of the 2007–2008 statewide cohort transferred to a university after four years. This qualitative study, conducted by us as participant-observers of the UTF program, describes one of the strategies currently in use that may increase opportunities for community college students to successfully navigate this challenging transition. In particular, it presents findings on the role of the UTF Support Specialist based on interviews with the first two Support Specialists in the UTF program and a survey of the first cohort of students to work with them. Our study shows that this long-term scaffolded relationship evolved throughout the pathway program in response to students’ needs. Starting as a mostly technical role, it became a family-like role; and finally, it became a smaller role as students themselves took on those support activities for each other. Based on these findings, our recommendations are to identify and select Support Specialists who are reflective and caring and to carefully plan for the challenges of long-term, cross-institutional student support.

This study is based on survey responses of 224 general chemistry instructors at United States (U.S.) community colleges and universities representing 46 states. The mean values of General Chemistry Topic Coverage (GCTC) score, developed by this researcher specifically for this dissertation study as a measure of course content, were statistically analyzed. The aim of this study is to answer five research questions: (a) Is there a difference in mean GCTC scores between U.S. community colleges and four-year colleges and universities? (b) If there is a difference in mean GCTC score between the two study groups, what are the observed differences in subtopics covered between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities? (c) Considering both community colleges and universities, is there a difference in mean GCTC score between the different designated U.S. regions? (d) Considering both community college and university professors, is there a difference in GCTC score for professors with a master's degree compared to those with a doctorate?, and (e) Is there a correlation between GCTC score and the percentage of students that major in science? Results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in course content between community colleges and universities, there is a statistically significant difference between different U.S. regions, there is no statistically significant difference between professors with an earned master's versus those with an earned doctorate degree, and there is no statistically significant correlation between general chemistry course content and the percentage of a professor's students majoring in science. Details of the observed differences between community college and university course content are discussed, and recommendations for future research are presented.

The buildings in which people work, live, and spend their leisure time are increasingly embedded with sophisticated information technology (IT). This article describes the approach of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska of the United States to provide an occupational context to some of their IT coursework by organizing IT instruction around the context of building automation systems (BAS). This contextualization allows IT students not only to study IT as a standalone discipline but also to study its integrated use within a specific occupational context. The article also describes MCC’s focused curriculum design efforts funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. These efforts toward BAS-contextualization of the IT curriculum have become a catalyst for systematic contextualization of IT instruction at MCC and support the institution’s broader efforts to become a national model in IT instruction and interdisciplinary engagement within the United States. The research-based approach, activities, and outcomes of this project are all described here, as well as the lessons learned by one community college seeking to make their IT program increasingly relevant to their students and the IT workforce of today.